Stop Using the Drive Immediately
When a file is deleted in Windows 11, the operating system does not immediately wipe the data from your drive. Instead, it marks the clusters occupied by that file as available free space. The actual contents remain on the disk until new data overwrites them.
To maximize your chances of a complete recovery, stop using the drive immediately. Avoid downloading new files, installing programs, or running disk-intensive background tasks, as any write activity can permanently overwrite your deleted data.
How NTFS Quick Scan Restores Filenames and Folder Paths
Most Windows 11 installations format internal drives and partitions using the NTFS file system. NTFS maintains a Master File Table (MFT) that acts as an index of all files, directories, and metadata on the volume.
When you delete a file, its record in the MFT is flagged as inactive, but the pointer structure often remains intact. RecoverHelper's Quick Scan reads the MFT directly to bring your files back with their original names, folder structures, and timestamps in seconds. If the file record is partially damaged or older, RecoverHelper's default Deep Scan seamlessly pairs Quick Scan with signature carving across the drive.
Step-by-Step: How to Recover Deleted Files on Windows 11
Recovering lost files from your Windows 11 PC takes just a few steps:
- Connect a secondary destination drive: Prepare a separate USB drive, external hard drive, or distinct partition to store the recovered files.
- Launch RecoverHelper and select the target drive: Choose the NTFS drive or partition where your files were stored. RecoverHelper accesses the source drive in strictly read-only mode to ensure your data stays safe.
- Run Quick Scan: Select Quick Scan to parse the NTFS Master File Table, or keep the default Deep Scan if files were deleted some time ago.
- Preview discovered files: Monitor real-time progress, scan throughput, and ETA while previewing recoverable files before saving them.
- Save your recovered data: Select the files you want to retrieve and confirm recovery to your external destination drive.
Essential Safety: Why Same-Drive Output Is Blocked
A critical mistake in data recovery is saving recovered files back onto the same disk partition being scanned. Doing so can overwrite the very sectors containing the rest of your lost files.
To prevent accidental data loss, RecoverHelper blocks same-drive output automatically. You must always select a separate physical drive or secondary partition as your destination folder. Additionally, built-in bad-sector tolerance allows the software to skip unreadable sectors on failing drives and continue scanning without crashing or freezing.
What you get, and what it costs
There is no paid tier. The only difference is whether you have paired the free mobile app:
- Straight away: Restore all JPG and PNG photos at full original quality without signing up or dealing with bundled adware. Full scans run free too, so you can confirm your files are intact before anything else.
- After pairing the free app: Every remaining format — camera RAW (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG, ORF, RAF, PEF, TIFF), HEIC, video (MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV, AVI, WebM), audio (MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG), documents and archives — plus partial recovery of fragmented files.
- Nothing to buy: There is no licence fee, so there is nothing to refund either.